Lucy isn’t a normal girl. Ghost. Victim. Killer. She’s a doll on a mission—to find the man who killed her and return the favor.

Lucy McQuinn has been murdered, but she’s not about to go quietly.

If she doesn’t get to keep breathing, then neither does Kyle, her killer. Possessing the body of an antique doll, she sets out on a quest for revenge. But it’s hard when you’re eighteen inches tall and made of porcelain.

For help, she turns to Nicola, a human and fellow outsider with her own reasons to hate Kyle. But in their small idyllic town, no one wants to hear the truth, especially not about such a promising young man. If they can’t expose his crimes, Lucy will have to roll up her lacy little sleeves and teach him a lesson the old-fashioned way—as slowly and painfully as possible.

From LA Times bestselling author Barbara Truelove, She’s a Doll is a ghoulish and gleeful tribute to the unstoppable power of female rage and a love letter to the friends who have our back—in this life and the next.

I received an advance copy of the audiobook courtesy of the publisher. All thoughts are my own.

This was exactly the kind of unhinged craziness I needed. It wasn’t quite the full on bloodbath I was hoping for going in, but it was still a total blast to read.

Lucy is murdered, and instead of quietly moving on to the afterlife, she ends up possessing the body of an antique porcelain dol. And trust when I say she is not about to let her killer, Kyle, get away with what he did. Problem is, enacting revenge when you’re eighteen inches tall and made of porcelain isn’t exactly easy. So, she recruits Nicola, a fellow classmate and outsider who also has personal issues with Kyle, to help her get justice. Lucy wants him dead. Nicola just wants him to go to jail and pay for what he did, but he’s the town’s golden boy so getting anyone to believe them isn’t easy. But that’s okay, because Lucy has her backup plan. Besides, she’s already dead and it’s not like they can throw her in jail if she kills him back. She just needs to figure out how to pull it off.

Watching Lucy channel all of her rage into this tiny, limited body, and slowly figure out how to work around those limitations instead of being stopped by them, was hilarious. She’s relentless once she sets her mind on something, and there’s something deeply satisfying about watching a character refuse to quit no matter how absurd her circumstances are. There are a lot of female rage stories out there and this one felt fresh and current while still being completely off the wall. I loved all of the dark humor.

One thing I have to mention is the book club discussion section at the very end. I almost never bother reading those in any book, but in this case, it’s a must. I won’t say anything more than that so I don’t spoil it for anyone. Just trust me and actually read it.

I did an immersive read on this one, and while I loved the story overall, the narration wasn’t my favorite. Her dialogue delivery was genuinely spot on, but the non dialogue passages came across pretty dry and robotic, with hard, distinct stops at every period and comma. This gave the whole thing a strange, choppy cadence. It wasn’t enough to ruin my overall experience, but if you’re choosing between the physical book and the audiobook, I’d personally lean toward the physical copy here.

Don’t skip the book itself though, audio preferences aside. It’s way too much fun to pass up. If you love dark, unhinged humor wrapped around a genuinely satisfying revenge story, this one delivers exactly that.

Book Club/Book Box: